


A Night In

by xenoglossy



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-01 01:17:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1038605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xenoglossy/pseuds/xenoglossy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the lockdown, Aoi and Sakura try to cheer each other up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Night In

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lirillith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/gifts).



The only time Aoi doesn't feel trapped these days is when she's swimming.

It's silly, really, because even an Olympic-sized swimming pool isn't _that_ big, but underwater the world extends into murky blueness on all sides and all she can hear is the swishing and splashing of her own movements. There are no steel plates down there, no sounds of machine-gun fire. It's easy to feel like she could keep swimming forever, right on out of this school.

Besides, the physical activity itself takes her mind off things. Half the time in the pool she's not even thinking of anything in particular, beyond her awareness of the way her body is moving and the space it's moving through. It's like meditating—or, well, what she figures meditating is supposed to be like if you do it right. Sakura meditates daily, and she always looks so peaceful doing it, even with everything that's happened these past few weeks. The one time Aoi tried, though, she sat there feeling bored for a while and then fell asleep. At least Sakura was nice about it. And anyway, a few weeks later Aoi tried to teach Sakura to swim and found that Sakura couldn't even float, which Aoi has to admit made her feel a little better.

Sakura's thrown herself into her training lately, too, Aoi has noticed. She hasn't said anything about how she's feeling—she's not the type to talk about that stuff directly, despite Aoi's best efforts. Still, it doesn't take a genius to guess that Sakura's reasons for spending so much time in the dojo aren't so different from Aoi's reasons for being reluctant to leave the pool.

But even a particularly talented swimmer can't keep at it forever. There are only so many laps she can push her tired muscles through before she has to give up for the night. This evening she's been in the water for an hour when she feels herself starting to drag, so her stamina's clearly not at its best—but it's not like she has a meet coming up anytime soon, so there's no point in worrying too much about it.

She hauls herself up over the side of the pool, ignoring the ladder and the stairs, and flops back on the hard tile floor for a minute, wishing she didn't have to leave, to go back to the half-hearted pretense of normal school life that they're all keeping up even though they all know that outside nothing is normal now and it might never be again.

But what else is she going to do, hole up in the pool and never come out? She sighs and sits up, shoving aside the damp locks of hair that take this opportunity to fall into her eyes, and hesitates a few moments longer before grabbing her towel and heading for the changing room.

She opens the door to find Sakura there, lifting weights. "Hey, Sakura-chan," she says, and Sakura, not quite able to manage a proper greeting at the moment, gives a small nod in return. Aoi settles down cross-legged on the floor to watch her. Usually she enjoys watching Sakura train, even—or especially—when it's something like this that she herself can't do. She likes seeing the way Sakura moves, the way her muscles move under her skin, her confidence and concentration as she goes through her routine. But tonight it's not quite right. Sakura's moving more slowly than usual, and her rhythm's off somehow. It seems like her heart's not really in it, Aoi thinks. If only there were something...

"Sakura-chan, I've been thinking," Aoi finds herself saying, even though she's been doing no such thing.

Sakura sets her barbell down, frowning slightly. "Yes?"

"It's been a while since we went on a date, hasn't it?"

Sakura's forehead wrinkles, and it takes her a moment to respond. "It has, but that is because the current state of affairs makes such things... difficult."

"Well, yeah, we can't _go_ anywhere," Aoi says. "But that doesn't mean we couldn't have, you know, a romantic night in, right?" Sakura says nothing, so Aoi barrels on ahead. "Like a candlelight dinner—" She breaks off and glances at the clock, which informs her that dinner service ended fifteen minutes ago.  "... Okay, we've missed dinner already and I don't think I could get candles, so maybe not exactly that, but something..." She trails off and sighs. "Sorry, I guess I'm just being silly."

A hint of a smile flickers on Sakura's face. "No," she says, "that sounds like a wonderful idea."

"Great!" Aoi says, and throws her arms around Sakura, realizing only when she sees the damp spot on Sakura's shirt that she probably should have changed out of her swimsuit first.

***

The kitchens are open to anyone as long as it's not too late at night, but that's of limited usefulness to Aoi, since she can't cook. She finds a couple of iced protein coffees, though, and some instant noodles, which is a lot _like_ real food. She swipes a tablecloth, three glasses, and two pairs of chopsticks while she's at it. Her next stop is the greenhouse, where she plucks a few of the less carnivorous-looking flowers and makes up a little bouquet. Which technically is not allowed, but she suspects no one will notice.

She carries her loot back to her room (only dropping things on the floor a _few_ times along the way, and at least nothing breaks or spills) and starts setting up. Her first thought is to put the tablecloth on the desk, but the desk's a mess, and she only has one chair in any case, so she spreads it out on the floor instead. Then she sets two places and puts the spare glass in the middle as a vase. It's a little too short and too wide, so the flowers lean awkwardly over to one side, but it's the best she can do on short notice, and it's not like anyone besides Sakura is going to see it anyway. She tidies up a little, or at least moves the mess where no one can see it, then surveys her handiwork and decides that it's ready. So she goes off down the hall to Sakura's room and knocks on the door.

Sakura has showered—her hair is still damp—and changed into her school uniform, and Aoi realizes that with all her running around setting up the sort-of-romantic sort-of-dinner, she forgot to do so herself. But at least she'd changed the swimsuit for a tank top and shorts, and her hair is... mostly dry, though in that stringy way that happens when she doesn't wash the chlorine out.

"Is it time, then?" Sakura asks.

"It is!" Aoi says, offering Sakura her arm. "Let me escort you to the feast." (Sakura, of course, knows perfectly well where Aoi's room is, but it's the principle of the thing.)

Sakura nods solemnly and takes her arm, and they walk the few yards down the hall together. When they reach the door of Aoi's room, they pause, and Aoi opens it with a dramatic flourish. "Ta-dah!" she exclaims, flinging her arms wide. "Dinner is served."

Sakura smiles. "It smells delicious."  
  
"Thanks!" Aoi grins back. "I added the hot water myself."

They sit down cross-legged on opposite sides of the borrowed tablecloth. "I'd dim the lights for atmosphere," Aoi says, "but all I can do is turn them off, and then it'd be too dark." As she says this, she keeps herself from glancing over at what used to be her window, now a thick sheet of metal bolted to the wall.

From a pocket of her blazer, Sakura produces a small flashlight. "I couldn't find any candles, but I thought this might suffice."

"Perfect!" Aoi says, setting the flashlight down in the center of the tablecloth. She switches it on, shuts off the lights, and then settles down again across from Sakura.

Sakura puts her hands together in front of her and bows her head. "Now, let us eat."

"Yes, let's," says Aoi, already reaching for her chopsticks. Until just now she'd been too distracted to notice, but she's starving. Swimming does that every time. 

For a moment, the only sound in the room is slurping, which on Aoi's part is half because she's hungry, but half because she's trying to think of a safe topic, something that will take their mind off their troubles. At last, she says, "So, I'm thinking about changing my morning exercise routine..."

To Aoi's relief, Sakura warms to the topic quickly, giving suggestions and talking about her own training. They go on like that for a while, talking about normal things—the kinds of things they used to talk about in their first year—and Aoi thinks she can see Sakura starting to relax, looking a little less tired.

 _Good_ , Aoi thinks, and relaxes a little too.

***

Later, when they've eaten all the ramen and drunk all the coffee and cleaned up after themselves (mostly—the stuff from the cafeteria will have to be returned tomorrow), they sit side-by-side on Aoi's bed, not saying much of anything. But it's a more comfortable silence now, the silence of two people who know each other well enough that they don't always have to talk.

Even so, Aoi breaks it eventually. "Sakura-chan..." she says, "If I had to be stuck here, I'm glad at least I'm stuck here with you."

As soon as she says it she's kicking herself for it—it's not exactly the most romantic thing she could have said—but Sakura just says, "I'm glad, too," and leans down to kiss her.

Aoi nestles against Sakura's side, and Sakura puts an arm around her shoulder, reassuringly warm and solid and familiar. For a little while, Aoi lets herself believe that things might turn out okay after all. And she hopes that, for a little while, Sakura might let herself believe that too.


End file.
